Toto Wolff quizzed on Mercedes’ famous ‘no blame’ culture as win eludes them

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said his team have not been pushed to deconstruct their no-blame culture in a challenging season-and-a-half.

Having won eight Constructors’ titles in a row between 2014-21, plus seven Drivers’ titles in that time, the going has got a lot tougher for Mercedes since the current ground effect regulations were introduced for the start of the 2022 campaign.

Mercedes scored just the one pole position and victory in 2022 courtesy of George Russell, while Lewis Hamilton registered Mercedes’ only pole of F1 2023 so far at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher and Sam Cooper

Toto Wolff says Mercedes no-blame culture in-tact

With Wolff having been at the Mercedes helm since 2013, he has made a point in that time of operating with a “no-blame” culture, so as Wolff explains it, opting to “blame the person and not the problem”.

But, the recent challenging times for Mercedes have not triggered finger pointing within the ranks.

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“I think human reaction is always when something goes wrong, you want to say ‘it’s your fault’, because that allows us to get pressure off us,” Wolff told media including PlanetF1.com.

“So it’s something that we actively debate. But clearly, you know, when things are rose [sic], you can live up to those standards, but sometimes it goes terribly wrong, which happened to us last year and also in some instances this year.

“And you just need to remind yourself constantly about that mindset and those values, that you blame the problem and not the person.

“Fundamentally, though, it’s all my fault. If we have a bad pit stop, it’s not because the mechanic has just underperformed, it’s because his equipment is not up to the job or the training hasn’t been good enough or our wheel nuts are not how they should be.

“So at the end, you can always retrace where the problem is and generally, it is up to us to develop the person so the person can perform to his best in the role. So that’s why we blame the problem and we’ve stuck to it.”

Mercedes hold P2 in the Constructors’ Championship as Formula 1 reaches its 2023 summer break, though the gap to runaway leaders Red Bull stands at an alarming 256 points.

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